The sewing expo was tremendous fun! I'm not sure what sewing expos in other countries includes, but here they opened the concept and included all sorts of creative handcraft. There was fabric, notions, patterns, knitting yarn, quilting, lace-weaving, scrap-booking, jewelrymaking and more, to behold and enjoy. The hall was huge and tightly packed with interesting booths. Even though I may not practice all these different crafts, it's still fun to browse and get an idea of what's available out there, so it took us - that's me, mom and my grandmother - almost 5 hours to cover the entire expo, and we didn't even double back much.
There were vendors from all of Sweden, and I ran into the lovely Olivia from Retro Olivia, who was working in the booth for her mother's company. She was just as charming and knowledgeble in real life, and it was so much fun to chat about sewing, reading, blogging! I really hope I'll get a chance to meet her again in the future!
Me and Olivia - two vintage loving gal's, rather tired as it was towards the end of the day
With so much to see and do, where did I lay my cash, what did I bring home? Well, I tried to keep my purchases to things I have a very good idea I will actually use, instead of just going along with all the inspiration that struck me every 5 metres =) I did rather well...
Fabrics: blue jersey for a dress, purple jersey and elastic lace for underwear, floral jersey for a top for Malin, blue silk for a blouse. I also bought a seduclingly soft and airy pyjama-top made of ecological bamboo. It was a 50% sale - it really would have cost more to buy fabric and sew my own.
I got Cath kidstone's Sew! (in Swedish!), two underwear patterns (see, there was a point with the purple fabric and trim above!) and a booklet with knitting directions for retro-inspired projects. The knickers-patterns I shared with mom, and the knitting booklet I got from Olivia's mother's company "Färgkraft". All these things are areas I haven't ventured into yet, but knitting as well as sewing bags and underwear have been on my skills-I-want-to-learn list. Maybe I'll take the leap soon! =)
Fun stuff! Well, it's all fun, but this was just indulgement =) A lacepattern with linen thread/yarn to it, and two little fun tools for laceweaving. A vintage hat, gift from gran who found it in a second hand store. Perfect red! And about 45000 metres of thread. Whew, it really goes out of proportions when an overlock gets into the picture, right? The thread mom got for me at Stoff och Stil, to a much better price than anything we saw at the expo.
Stockholm was beautiful, clinging on to the end of fall, with gorgeous colours everywhere. Saturday morning me and mom solved (or tried to solve) the radio music crossword, while eating breakfast and enjoying this view.
And of course, one of the major treats with visiting mom is I get to cuddle with Elsa! =)
It was an intense but fun weekend, and now it's rather nice to be back home again. I'm looking forward to sewing! As soon as I unpack properly and sort through everything and dig out my sewing table from beneth the weekend's haul... Better start now, then I'll get to sew tomorrow! =)
Love, Erika
5 comments:
I went to a sewing 'expo' for the first time in february. Didn't know what to expect ended up buying patterns rather than fabric. but next time definitely would go for the fabric. so much choice. I'm still kicking myself for not buying the silk that was a bargain price coz it was clearance stock.
Nice to meet you too! We will have to make that happen more times, in spite of the distance...
A was thinking of going to that bamboo-place to look at what she had, but I quite forgot..But maybe that was for the best, since I spent quite a lot in Simbra Sidens booth, got a bit out of hand to say the least. :) but now I have lots of silks to make blouses of... and of course all the lingerie-fabric I purchased at LGs, is like it always is on the sewing expo.. very easy to spend those pennies... to easy ;)
Det kanske blir intressant att läsa en översatt bok. Jag tänkte på att du har läst en hel del engelska syböcker och letat översättningar på ord och så där. Roligt att se om de har översatt annorlunda. Det är ju inte samma bok, men ändå.
Supersöt bild på Elsa!
Verkar ju som en trevlig grej den där mässan, ska bli kul att se resultaten av alla inköpen sen ;)
Lady D, I also found some silk I'm regretting not buying! It was the same quality as the pale blue, but in a light beige that would have made a perfect slip. Sigh. Maybe next year...
Olivia, Som tur var kom vi till Simbra siden i slutet, så jag inte förköpte mig =) Sen hejdades jag lite av vetskapen att jag har en superbra liten affär, Sidenateljén, här upp i Umeå (om du kommer till stan rekommenderar jag varmt ett besök där!). Skulle dock ha köpt två meter av det hudfärgade sidenet till en underklänning... Nästa gång! ; )
Ser fram emot att ses igen!
Kajsa; den verkar jättebra! Har en hel del böcker på svenska, och nånstans så är det ändå en liten, liten bit enklare. Hur bra engelska jag än har, och hur van läsare jag än är. Mamma lånade boken, jag ska ta hem den efter jul. Ska bli skoj att börja sy väskor, fodral och liknande!
Kitten; det var riktigt roligt! Hoppas jag får möjlighet att åka i vår med =) Ser verkligen frame mot att börja sy, nu har jag köpt en massa tyg, jag har tusen idéer, men nästan ingen tid =( Efter jul, då banne mig ska jag sy! =)
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